Nature’s Gigantic Snow Plough
On January 10, 1962, an enormous piece of glacier broke away and tumbled down the side of a mountain in Peru. A mere seven minutes later, when cascading ice finally came to a stop ten miles down the mountain, it had taken the lives of 4,000 people.
This disaster is one of the most “devastating”examples of a very common event: an avalanche of snow or ice. Because it is extremely cold at very high altitudes, snow rarely melts. It just keeps piling up higher and higher. Glaciers are eventually created when the weight of the snow is so great that the lower layers are pressed into solid ice. But most avalanches occur long before this happens. As snow accumulates on a steep slope, it reaches a critical point at which the slightest vibration will send it sliding into the valley below.
Even an avalanche of light power can be dangerous, but the Peruvian catastrophe was particularly terrible because it was caused by a heavy layer of ice. It is estimated that the ice that broke off weighed three million tons. As it crashed down the steep mountainside like a gigantic snow plough, it swept up trees, boulders and tons of topsoil, and completely crushed and destroyed the six villages that lay in its path.
At present there is no way to predict or avoid such enormous avalanches, but, luckily, they are very rare. Scientists are constantly studying the smaller, more common avalanches, to try to understand what causes them. In the future, perhaps dangerous masses of snow and ice can be found and removed before they take human lives.
1. The first paragraph catches the reader’s attention with a _____
A. first hand report
B. dramatic description
C. tall tale
D. vivid world picture
2. In this passage "devastating" means ______ .
A. violently ruinous
B. spectacularly interesting
C. stunning
D. unpleasant
3. The passage is mostly about ______ .
A. avalanches
B. glaciers
C. Peru
D. mountains
1. A) 文章的第一段就像一个新闻报道，报道了在秘鲁发生的雪崩的灾难性后果，一下子就吸引了读者的注意力。
2. A) 根据语境线索可判断出词义为A。
3. A) 通读全文可知，文章主要是讲述雪崩的形成。
2011年专四考试模拟试题（阅读篇6）
As the merchant class expanded in the eighteenth century North American Colonies, the silversmith and the coppersmith businesses rose to serve it. Only a few silversmiths were available in New York or Boston in the late seventeenth century, but in the eighteenth century they could be found in all major colonial cities. No other colonial artisans rivaled the silversmiths’ prestige. They handled the most expensive materials and possessed direct connections to prosperous colonial merchants. Their products, primarily silver plates and bowls, reflected their exalted status and testified to their customers’ prominence. Silver stood as one of the surest ways to store wealth at a time before neighborhood banks existed. Unlike the silver coins from which they were made, silver articles were readily identifiable. Often formed to individual specifications, they always carried the silversmith’s distinctive markings and consequently could be traced and retrieved. Customers generally secure the silver for the silver object they ordered. They saved coins, took them to smiths, and discussed the type of pieces they desired. Silversmiths complied with these requests by melting the money in a small furnace, adding a bit of copper to form a stronger alloy, and casting the alloy in rectangular blocks. They hammered these ingots to the appropriate thickness by hand, shaped them and pressed designs into them for adornment. Engraving was also done by hand. In addition to plates and bowls, some customers sought more intricate products, such as silver teapots. These were made by shaping or casting parts separately and then soldering them together. Colonial coppersmithing also come of age in the early eighteenth century and prospered in northern cities. Copper’s ability to conduct heat efficiently and to resist corrosion contributed to its attractiveness. But because it was expensive in colonial America, coppersmiths were never very numerous. Virtually all copper worked by Smiths was imported as sheets or obtained by recycling old copper goods. Copper was used for practical items, but it was not admired for its beauty. Coppersmiths employed it to fashion pots and kettles for the home. They shaped it in much the same manner as silver or melted it in a foundry with lead or tin. They also mixed it with zinc to make brass for maritime and scientific instruments.
1.According to the passage, which of the following eighteenth century developments had strong impact on silversmiths?
A. A decrease in the cost of silver.
B. The invention of heat efficient furnaces.
C. The growing economic prosperity of colonial merchants.
D. The development of new tools used to shape silver.
2.In colonial America, where did silversmiths usually obtain the material to make silver articles?
A. From their own mines.
B. From importers.
C. From other silversmiths.
D. From customers.
3.The passage mentions all of the following as uses for copper in Colonial America EXCEPT ______ .
A. cooking pots
B. scientific instruments
C. musical instruments
D. maritime instruments
4.According to the passage, silversmiths and coppersmiths in colonial America were similar in which of the following ways?
A. The amount of social prestige they had.
B. The way they shaped the metal they worked with.
C. The cost of the goods they made.
D. The practicality of the goods they made.
1. C) 根据文章第一句“As the merchant class expanded in the eighteenth century North American Colonies,...”可知，随着在十八世纪的北美殖民地商人阶级膨胀起来，也就是说那时的商人财富有了很大的发展，银匠铜匠们有机会发挥他们的专长了，这与选项C正好相符。
2. D) 根据文章第十四、五行“Customers generally secures …object they ordered. They saved coins, took them to smiths, and...”可知顾客要做银器，首先要积攒银币，然后拿到银匠处加工成他们想要的形状。选项D“来自客户”与之相符。
3. C) 文章末尾在提到铜的用途时惟独没有提到乐器。
4. B) 根据文章倒数第四行“They shaped it in much the same manner as silver or melted it in a foundry with lead or tin.”可知银匠和铜匠在银器和铜器的塑型方式上是一样的，故选项B为正确答案。
2011年专四考试模拟试题（阅读篇7）
People have been painting pictures for at least 30,000 years. The earliest pictures were painted by people who hunted animals. They used to paint pictures of the animals they wanted to catch and kill. Pictures of this kind have been found on the walls of caves in France and Spain. No one knows why they were painted there. Perhaps the painters thought that their pictures would help them to catch these animals. Or perhaps human beings have always wanted to tell stories in pictures.
About 5,000 years ago, the Egyptians and other people in the Near East began to use pictures as kind of writing. They drew simple pictures or signs to represent things and ideas, and also to represent the sounds of their language. The signs these people used became a kind of alphabet.The Egyptians used to record information and to tell stories by putting picture writing and pictures together. When an important person died, scenes and stories from his life were painted and carved on the walls of the place where he was buried. Some of these pictures are like modern comic strip stories. It has been said that Egypt is the home of the comic strip. But, for the Egyptians, pictures still had magic power. So they did not try to make their way of writing simple. The ordinary people could not understand it.
By the year 1,000 BC, people who lived in the area around the Mediterranean Sea had developed a simpler system of writing. The signs they used were very easy to write, and there were fewer of them than in the Egyptian system. This was because each sign, or letter, represented only one sound in their language. The Greeks developed this system and formed the letters of the Greek alphabet. The Romans copied the idea, and the Roman alphabet is now used all over the world.
These days, we can write down a story, or record information, without using pictures. But we still need pictures of all kinds: drawing, photographs, signs and diagrams. We find them everywhere: in books and newspapers, in the street, and on the walls of the places where we live and work. Pictures help us to understand and remember things more easily, and they can make a story much more interesting.
1. Pictures of animals were painted on the walls of caves in France and Spain because ___ ___ .
A. the hunters wanted to see the pictures
B. the painters were animal lovers
C. the painters wanted to show imagination
D. the pictures were thought to be helpful
2. The Greek alphabet was simpler than the Egyptian system for all the following reasons EXCEPT that ___ ___.
A. the former was easy to write
B. there were fewer signs in the former
C. the former was easy to pronounce
D. each sign stood for only one sound
3. Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. The Egyptian signs later became a particular alphabet.
B. The Egyptians liked to write comic strip stories.
C. The Roman alphabet was developed from the Egyptian one.
D. The Greeks copied their writing system from the Egyptians.
4. In the last paragraph, the author thinks that pictures ___ ___ .
A. should be made comprehensible
B. should be made interesting
C. are of much use in our life
D. have disappeared from our life
1. D)
根据文章第一段第五行“Perhaps the painters thought that their pictures would help them to catch these animals.”可知古代人以为在墙上画画会对他们有所帮助，故选项D为正确答案。
2. C)
在做此类题时要注意题干的要求。通过阅读文章第四段很清楚就知道选项C “前者容易发音”在文中没有提及，故为正确答案。
3. A)
可用排除法来做本题。通过阅读文章很清楚选项B和D为错误陈述。
选项C “罗马字母是从埃及字母发展而来的”根据文章第四段第四，五句可知为错误论述，因此只有选项A为正确答案。
4. C)
文章最后一段讲述了图画在今天的用途，故选项C为正确答案。
2011年专四考试模拟试题（阅读篇8）
When I was growing up, the whole world was Jewish. The heroes were Jewish and the villains were Jewish. The landlord, the doctor, the grocer, your best friend, the village idiot, and the neighborhood bully: all Jewish. We were working class and immigrants as well, but that just came with territory. Essentially we were Jews on the streets of New York. We learned to be kind, cruel, smart and feeling in a mixture of language and gesture that was part street slang, part grade school English, part kitchen Yiddish.
One Sunday evening when I was eight years old my parents and I were riding in the back seat of my rich uncle's car. We had been out for a ride and now we were back in the Bronx, headed for home. Suddenly, another car sideswiped us. My mother and aunt shrieked. My uncle swore softly. My father, in whose lap I was sitting, said out the window at the speeding car, "That's all right. Nothing but a few Jews in here." In an instant I knew everything. I knew there was a world beyond our streets, and in that world my father was humiliated man, without power or standing.
When I was sixteen,a girl in the next building had her nose straightened; we all went together to see Selma Shapiro lying in state, wrapped in bandages from which would emerge a person fit for life beyond the block. Three buildings away a boy went downtown for a job, and on his application he wrote "Arnold Brown" instead of "Arnold Braunowiitz". The news swept through the neighborhood like a wild fire. A nose job? A name change? What was happening here? It was awful; it was wonderful. It was frightening; it was delicious. Whatever it was, it wasn't standstill. Things felt lively and active. Self confidence was on the rise, passivity on the wane. We were going to experience challenges. That's what it meant to be in the new world. For the first time we could imagine ourselves out there.
But who exactly do I mean when I say we? I mean Arnie, not Selma. I mean my brother, not me. I mean the boys, not the girls. My mother stood behind me, pushing me forward. "The girl goes to college, too," she said. And I did. But my going to college would not mean the same thing as my mother's going to college, and we all knew it. For my brother, college meant going from the Bronx to Manhattan. But for me? From the time I was fourteen I yearned to get out of the Bronx, but get out into what? I did not actually imagine myself a working person alone in Manhattan and nobody else did either. What I did imagine was that I would marry, and that the man I married would get me downtown. He would brave the perils of class and race, and somehow I'd be there alongside him.
24. In the passage, we can find the author was ______ .
A. quite satisfied with her life
B. a poor Jewish girl
C. born in a middle class family
D. a resident in a rich area in New York
25. Selma Shapiro had her nose straightened because she wanted ______ .
A. to look her best
B. to find a new job in the neighborhood
C. to live a new life in other places
D. to marry very soon
26. Arnold Brown changed his name because ______ .
A. there was racial discrimination in employment
B. Brown was just the same as Braunowiitz
C. it was easy to write
D. Brown sounds better
27. From the passage we can infer that ______ .
A. the Jews were satisfied with their life in the Bronx
B. the Jewish immigrants could not be rich
C. all the immigrants were very poor
D. the young Jews didn't accept the stern reality
解析：
24. B) 根据文章第一段和最后一段可以很明显判断出“I”是一位贫穷的犹太小女孩。
25. C) 根据第三段第一句中“..., wrapped in bandages from which would emerge a person fit for life beyond the block.”可知这个女孩做鼻子美容是为了
使人们认不出她是犹太人，以适应犹太街区外边的生活，也就是说她要在外面的世界过新的生活。
26. A) 由于在美国招工时有种族歧视现象，因此这个男孩把犹太人的姓名改成普通的姓名。
27. D) 年轻犹太人对现实不满，更名、美容、嫁富人成了改变现状的手段，作者对种族歧视、性别歧视、歧视深有感触，文中到处可以见到。下载本文
